Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (2/7/18)

Final Score
Augustana 71, NCC 65

Game Summary
The Vikings (17-5, 9-4) pretty quickly silenced the crowd in this one, opening the game on an 8-0 run. The Cardinals (16-6, 9-4) brought Mike Pollack off the bench, and a couple threes got the team back into it, with an Alex Sorenson bucket a couple minutes later narrowing the gap to three. But the Vikings responded with a 10-0 run sparked by back to back Nolan Ebel threes. The Cardinals couldn't make a dent into the lead as Augie would lead by as many as 17 before settling in with a 32-16 halftime advantage. North Central made a bit of a push early in the first half, narrowing the gap to 11 just over five minutes in and forcing an Augustana timeout, but that break stopped the bleeding and prompted an 8-0 Viking run to push the lead back to 19. Augie seemed to have an answer for every Cardinal basket, but holding onto a 16 point lead with eight minutes to play, the Cardinals made their fateful final push, cutting the lead to single digits with four minutes to play, pushing it back under that mark for good with two and a half left, and coming within four at 69-65 with a minute to play. Augie split a pair of free throws, and on the ensuing possession, Mike Pollack missed a three which effectively ended the game.

Key Stats

• Chrishawn Orange (AUG): 8-12 FG (2-2 3PT), 4-6 FT; 22 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Orange has killed the Cardinals at Gregory Arena in his three games here, and last night was no different. He scored Augie's first eight points before taking more of a backseat offensively, but did a ton of damage as the game went along, finishing perfect from the field in the second half and scoring the remaining 14 of his points.
• Nolan Ebel (AUG): 5-12 FG (2-4 3PT), 6-8 FT; 18 pts, 6 reb (1 off), 3 ast. Ebel was clutch last night as well. He had 10 at halftime and didn't shoot particularly well in the second half, but he scored Augie's final six points to seal the victory.
• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 8-14 FG (2-3 3PT), 1-3 FT; 19 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 5 ast, 1 blk. Alex struggled mightily in the early going of this one; he was 1-6 from the floor with just two points at the break as Augie did a fantastic job defensively on him. But he kept working in the post in the second half to help collapse the defense while getting his points, and hit a couple threes to help spark the late comeback attempt. All in all he ended with a solid night for his part.

Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch
Far and away, this is my favorite part of writing up these game notes... and my favorite non-game related aspect of the season on either the men's or the women's side. As a refresher for those of you who are new to either Confessions of a Sportscaster and/or CCIW men's basketball, Augie head coach Grey Giovanine is one of the best coaches in the country... and also one of the biggest head cases. As I understand it, he's mellowed to some degree from past years, but the most fun thing to watch for in these games is Grey's suit coat.

Big game coming up for NCC men’s basketball against Augie on Wednesday... which means I’m on #GreyGiovanineJacketWatch! When do you think the Vikings coach will remove it?

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) February 5, 2018

For years I've run an unofficial pool to see when people think it's coming off. One year I even won a Mountain Dew out of the deal from our former official scorer. This year there are no stakes other than pride and the sheer joy of seeing the coat come off. Last night, Grey took it off with 12:00 remaining in the first half. North Central SID Clark Teuscher won this year's unofficial pool with a guess of seven minutes in.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• WHE 107 (15-6, 8-4), @ IWU 95 (16-5, 9-3)
• Millikin is eliminated from the CCIW Tournament
• @ CRL 73 (9-12, 5-7), CAR 69 (12-9, 7-5)
• MIL 87 (11-11, 4-9), @ ELM 70 (11-11, 4-9)
• Elmhurst is eliminated from the CCIW Tournament
• (Tues): @ NPU 87 (5-16, 1-11), East-West 71
• (WBK): @ MIL 73 (6-15, 1-11), NCC 70 (5-17, 3-10)

Final Thoughts

I talked about how big this game was in yesterday's regional ranking post. Unfortunately, the Cardinals did not come out strong in this one as Augie played fantastic defense all night and hit some shots to pull away early. The Cardinals had some decent looks early on that just didn't fall, as they didn't shoot well in the first half, but shot very well in the second. Unfortunately, Augie heated up offensively as well to have an answer for every potential Cardinal run. They earned a tough road win, their fifth in a row in Naperville. As much as I'd like to complain about some perceived bad calls or the lack of Erwin Henry, Augie absolutely deserved to win this game.

This hurts the Cardinals big time. Illinois Wesleyan lost, which had set the stage for the Cardinals to potentially grab first place in the CCIW. Instead, they're effectively third because Augie is now locked into the tiebreaker over North Central with the head to head sweep. Wheaton's win also brings them within half a game of the Cardinals for third place. It's becoming a fairly crowded top of the conference now, and even though Illinois Wesleyan has lost two straight, they're still a threat at the top.

The other problem is that the Cardinals have a bye on Saturday, so they will idle at 9-4 in the conference until next week. The other contenders are all playing teams in the bottom four of the league this Saturday, so all have opportunities to gain ground on the Cardinals or put them in the rear view mirror. North Central returns to action with their final regular season home game on Valentine's Day when Carroll comes calling.